This application claims the benefit of the Korean Application No. P2002-18970 filed on Apr. 8, 2002, which is hereby incorporated by reference.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to device and method for fabricating a display panel, more particularly, to device and method for fabricating a display panel having ink-jet printing applied thereto for reducing a production cost and preventing a pattern failure.
2. Background of the Related Art
In general, cathode-ray tubes (CRT) have been mostly used as information displays. However, with digitization of information, a new concept of display is required by environmental changes. For example, compact displays obtaining thinness and lightness with low power consumption are required in an environment requiring mobility, such as cars, or airplanes, or portable computers. Meanwhile, large sized displays with high luminance and wide viewing angle are required in an environment in which delivery of information to the mass of people is required.
Recently, researches and development for flat panel displays (FPD) are actively performed in that the FPDs are suitable for a variety of environments as explained above. There are the flat panel displays such as liquid crystal display (LCD), plasma display panels (PDP), field emitting displays (FED), and electroluminescent displays (ELD).
For commercialization of the displays, it is required to simplify fabricating process steps, thereby decreasing production cost. Especially, it is important to reduce cost in a panel patterning process since the panel patterning process requires expensive equipment and complicated fabricating process steps.
In a related art patterning process, photolithography and screen-printing method are mostly used. In this related art process, though thin and even pattern is available, the photolithography has a high material cost, and complicated fabricating process steps such as deposition, masking, etching, and the like, are required. The screen-printing method has simple fabricating process steps, and fabricating equipment used in the screen-printing method is not expensive as compared to the photolithography, however, it is hard to obtain thin and even pattern in the screen-printing method.
Accordingly, the present invention is directed to device and method for fabricating a display panel having ink-jet printing applied thereto that substantially obviates one or more of the problems due to limitations and disadvantages of the related art.
An object of the present invention is to provide device and method for fabricating a display panel having ink-jet printing applied thereto, in which it is possible to simplify fabricating process steps and to reduce production cost.
Additional features and advantages of the invention will be set forth in the description which follows, and in part will be apparent from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention. The objectives and other advantages of the invention will be realized and attained by the structure particularly pointed out in the written description and claims hereof as well as the appended drawings.
To achieve these and other advantages and in accordance with the purpose of the present invention, as embodied and broadly described, a device for fabricating a display panel having ink-jet printing applied thereto includes a stage including a hole and supporting a substrate; one or more ink-jet heads having nozzles spraying pattern forming solution onto the substrate; and one or more cameras positioned below the stage so as to monitor the nozzles through the holes.
Preferably, the holes of the stage are aligned to be correspondent with align marks of the substrate.
Preferably, the device further includes a head control means for controlling a rotation angle of the ink-jet heads according to intervals between the patterns, and the head control means turns the ink-jet headers at a great angle with reference to a direction perpendicular to a length direction of the patterns as the interval between the patterns becomes smaller.
Preferably, the device further includes one or more monitors monitoring the nozzles with grids having a predetermined distance according to the interval between the patterns intended to form.
In another aspect of the present invention, a device for fabricating a display panel having ink-jet printing applied thereto includes a stage supporting a substrate having align marks, and having holes for being corresponding to the align marks; a plurality of rotary ink-jet heads having nozzles spraying pattern forming solution onto the substrate; cameras being fitted below each hole of the stage for monitoring the nozzles through the holes; and monitors being connected with the cameras so as to monitor the nozzles with grids having a fixed interval according to an interval between the patterns intended to form.
In another aspect of the present invention, a method for fabricating a display panel having ink-jet printing applied thereto includes the steps of (a)setting ink-jet heads; (b) monitoring positions of the nozzles of the ink-jet heads by monitoring grids having the fixed interval according to the interval of the patterns; (c)arranging the substrate on the stage; and (d)spraying pattern forming solution into the substrate through the nozzles of the ink-jet heads in a state of moving the substrate.
Preferably, the ink-jet heads are set to be turned at a predetermined angle according to the interval between the patterns intended to form, and the ink-jet heads are turned at a great angle with reference to a direction perpendicular to a length direction of the patterns as the interval of the patterns becomes smaller.
Preferably, the holes of the stage are aligned to be correspondent with the align marks of the substrate.
It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are exemplary and explanatory and are intended to provide further explanation of the invention as claimed.